Trappist Ale Recipes

[Goat]

I'd like to give an AG big Belgian Ale a go - something like a Rochefort 10 or Abbaye Des Rocs (my favorite) but I'm having difficulties with recipes. Has anyone given it a try? I'd be keen to hear tips.

Now that I have some Candi Sugar (thanks BigD) and some Wyeast 3787 ready to step up for a big starter, I want to start working on the recipe and order the grain. The only thing I could find on the web that made sense to me was the following which is for Rochefort 8 (I assume that I just up the OG to get to a 10):


Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (L): 25.00 Wort Size (L): 25.00
Total Grain (kg): 8.69
Anticipated OG: 1.083 Plato: 20.02
Anticipated SRM: 21.1
Anticipated IBU: 35.3
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70 %
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Grain/Extract/Sugar
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
68.8 5.98 kg. Pilsener Germany 1.038 2
0.6 0.05 kg. Carafa Special III Germany 1.030 450
3.6 0.31 kg. CaraAroma Germany 1.035 130
10.8 0.93 kg. CaraMunich Malt Belgium 1.033 75
12.7 1.10 kg. Demerara Sugar 1.047 0
3.6 0.31 kg. Flaked Corn (Maize) America 1.040 1

Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.

Hops
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
57.50 g. Styrian Goldings Pellet 4.00 26.0 60 min.
42.00 g. Hallertau Hersbrucker Pellet 3.50 8.5 30 min.
14.00 g. Hallertau Hersbrucker Pellet 3.55 0.9 5 min.

Extras
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
0.42 Oz Corriander Seed Spice 5 Min.(boil)

Does this sound like a goer?

JM suggests that I should give the spice a miss as the spiceyness comes from the yeast - this seems to make a lot of sense judging from very spicey taste of the unhopped beer from the starter... very nice it was too.

Oh, and what is flaked corn? are we talking cornflakes that I have for brekky here?

 

[Asher]

Goat

Here's a link that may be of interest. There's some good overviews of Belgian styles and some recipes to plagiarise too.
http://realbeer.com/spencer/Belgian/

Here's an article from HBD.... It won't work at the moment though due to the problems there having I suspect
http://hbd.org/trub/Beer%Style%20Articles/belgian_ales.htm

I've just started working on a Strong Golden Ale recipe myself at the moment too.....

Asher for now

 

[THE DRUNK ARAB]

Try this link to the brewing Belgian Ales page, it works for me.

http://hbd.org/trub/Beer%20Style%20Articles/belgian_ales.htm

I brewed the Duvel recipe from this, I used Tasmanian Goldings for the bitterness and cultured the yeast from a bottle of Duvel. I was very happy with the outcome even though it wasn't as light as Duvel seems.

And I used ordinary household sugar, not candi.

Good luck

C&B
TDA

 

[warrenlw63]

Goat,

This was an attempt I made at a Chimay Blue Clone, managed to snag 1st place at VicBrew 2002. Turned out real nice,

Batch size 24 litres in fermenter

7kg Weyermann Pilsner Malt 82%
250g Weyermann CaraMunich II 3%
150g Weyermann CaraAroma 2%
100g Weyermann Acidulated Malt 1%
100g Weyermann Carafa I 1%
60g Flaked Wheat 0.7%
900g Chinese Yellow Lump Sugar 10.3%
(Asian Grocers have this)

20g Kent Golding Pellets ~6% AAU 75mins
20g Saaz Pellets ~4%AAU 75mins
5g Kent Golding Pellets 30mins
20g Saaz pellets at end of boil
15g Kent Golding pellets at end of boil

Yeast: Wyeast 3942 Belgian Wheat
Primary ferment at 18c

OG 1.085
FG 1.018
Bitterness: 30IBU
Colour 27EBC
Boil Time 90mins

Enjoy -
Warren

 

[Goat]

Thanks for the links chaps - some good reading in there....

That recipe sounds good warrenlw63 not dissimilar ingredients either - might have to copy it ! The yeast choice is interesting too

 

[warrenlw63]

Yep,

Certainly an interesting yeast choice. Maybe more common in a Wit. Worked very well in a trappist. A lot of very nice esters.

Warren -

 

[Doc]

I'd like to give an AG big Belgian Ale a go - something like a Rochefort 10 or Abbaye Des Rocs (my favorite) but I'm having difficulties with recipes. Has anyone given it a try? I'd be keen to hear tips.

For a Rochefort 10 this link may help.
The link is to a PDF document.

Beers,
Doc

 

[warrenlw63]

That recipe looks good

The only thing I'd do would be to piss off the flaked maize. There's quite a fair bit of sugar going in. The maize would add nothing. Perhaps a drier finish that could be achieved by the sugar in the first place.

Warren -

 

[Wreck]

Warren, how close did you get to a Chimay?

 

[warrenlw63]

Close, but alas Wreck I got no cigar :lol:

Colour was spot on. Maltiness and bitterness was very close. Esters were not as pronounced. It was just lacking that certain something that makes Chimay Blue such a nice drop.

Wasn't complaining though <_<

Warren -

 

[Wreck]

The elusive Chimay Blue. The monks probably use holy water...

 

[Goat]

Why (in the recipe that Doc gave a link to) did they add the de-husked Carafa when they lautered it and not at mash in? I don't understand that....

 

[warrenlw63]

Goat,

I'd say the reason that the brewer did this is he/she wanted the Carafa for it's colour contribution only. Some say that adding roasted/coloured malts at mashout/lauter minimises the roast flavour contribution and mainly adds colour.

Warren -

 

[warrenlw63]

Wreck,

Holy water may be close

They say that the water used at Scourmont is both soft and acidic. Think the fellah upstairs was definitely smiling at them monks

Warren -

 

[Goat]

OK - I got a lot to learn here....

I thought the colour of the Candi sugar gave colour - otherwise ou'd just use table sugar (?)

 

[warrenlw63]

Goat,

I always thought that dark candi had a colour contribution as well. OTOH 2 years ago I brought back 4 x 500g packs of dark candi from a supermarket when I was in Europe (Munich, believe it or not I couldn't find it in Brussels). Actually 3 and a half packs... one pack burst open in my suit case... but don't get me started :angry: ). I thought that when customs opened my bag I was going to get the old gloved hand up the a*#e treatment :blink: :blink:

I found that the colour contribution of dark candi was basically nil given the amount I used.

I used 1 and a half kg in two batches of beer. One was a Belg. dark ale. The other was more or less a La Chouffe clone. I thought that in the La Chouffe clone that the dark candi would give it that amberish colour that La Chouffe has but alas the beer came out not much darker than a Pilsner.

Rely on small amounts of Carafa, you'll fare better. IMO the contribution of Candi to a Belgian is more or less overrated. I thought I got better results from using the Chinese Yellow Lump Sugar. Even raw sugar is OK.

Warren -